Comments on: Firefox Ads & Pop-Ups

Question: Firefox Ads & Pop-Ups

trinarian — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 15:59:17 -0800

I love Firefox like the next guy, but I think it's popularity has killed off its best feature: ad/pop-up blocking. How do I make all the pop-ups stop?

I've installed AdBlocker, added the correct lines of code from this post, run AdAware.... still, I get pop-ups. Same thing on my brand new laptop; within two days of having Firefox I was getting pop-ups.

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 16:19:43 -0800

This has come up before, but I'm too lazy to link to the discussion so I'll tell you what to do.

Type "about:config" in the address bar and hit enter.
Right-click anywhere and choose New>Integer.
Name it "privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins" and give it a value of 2.

This disallows any plug-ins from generating pop-ups, which is how sites are getting around the default blocking methods.

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 16:20:46 -0800

aw crap. looks like you linked to the post. oops.

Can you tell me which sites are generating pop-ups for you?

By: Turd Ferguson

Turd Ferguson — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 16:44:43 -0800

By AdBlocker, I assume you mean Adblock. Did you add some filters to it? It doesn't block much by default. There is a good list that I use here. Right-click on the most recent list and choose "copy link location". You can import it into Adblock by going to Tools->Adblock->Preferences, then click Adblock Options->Import Filters. You can then paste the HTTP address that you copied right into the "file name" field of the open dialog.

This will block most ads, including those that circumvent pop-up blocking.

By: purephase

purephase — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:08:26 -0800

You might want to install FlashBlock. A lot of adverts are getting around the pop-up features in FireFox by using Flash. The privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins option is a good step, but it's not bullet-proof.

Also, make sure we're talking about pop-up's from the web. Are you getting "Messenger" spam? If you're running Windows 2000/XP, without a firewall/router setup, then go to Start->Settings->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Find the Messenger service and disable it by double-clicking on it's entry, then selecting disable in the drop down list.

Finally, some pop-ups will still happen regardless of what you're doing browser-wise. Try SpyBot instead of AdAware (IMO, it's better).

By: interrobang

interrobang — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:12:17 -0800

I'd like to recommend against FlashBlock. At first, it was great, but at some point, it just stopped *all* flash from being viewable. I had to completely throw away and reinstall Firefox to get rid of it, too, because it had disappeared.

I finally got rid of it, but I lost all my bookmarks, which was a huge pain in the ass.

By: krisjohn

krisjohn — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:04:33 -0800

I have no idea how interrobang had so many problems with Flashblock. All it does is require that you click on any flash files you want to play. It's pretty harmless.

But if you want really powerful ad-blocking stuff (and you're running Windows -- or WINE under Linux) you want Proxomitron and the JD filter set

By: raaka

raaka — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:11:23 -0800

I get no popups I don't want, but often block popups I do want, by using extended tab preferences, the extension Tab Mix and a brutal Adblock list.

If you don't want tab mix change these in about:config

browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs set to true
More options in Tools < options advancedbr>
browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction set to 0 or 2.
0 = Windows and tabs open in new tab
2 = popups without set values do not open

(I prefer PrefBar to Flashblock. Adblock catches 90% of the Flash ads so most Flash I want to see.)

By: jonah

jonah — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 19:58:37 -0800

I do flashblock and it works really well. I'm on XP with Firefox and when I do want to view flash on a site, I either hit the "play" button or I right click and select "allof flash from this site" then reload. So far I haven't had any noticeable problems with not being able to view Flash.

By: Iax

Iax — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:12:45 -0800

the newer version of firefox handle extensions ALOT better.
I had problems with some buggy extensions with the older version of firefox, but the new firefox seems to do a much better job of keeping track of installed extensions, and their uninstall options.

By: blag

blag — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 03:19:29 -0800

Seconding Turd Ferguson's suggestion - FiltersetG has removed pretty much every advert on the internet for me.

By: vjz

vjz — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 08:34:21 -0800

I second purephase's suggestion of FlashBlock. Never seen a popup since I installed it.